Supporters of Berkeley Grads Detained in Iran Stunned By Eight-Year Prison Sentence

On Saturday afternoon, Andrew Kibbey, a friend of detained hiker Josh Fattal, still didn't believe his friend could be sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran.

"I'm still waiting to get a confirmation that the sentencing is actually real," he said. "I would still be a little hopeful that there's some pardoning going on."

The Associated Press reported on Saturday morning that Fattal and his friend Shane Bauer, both UC Berkeley graduates, were sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for espionage.

The news came from state television, according to the AP. Stunned supporters of the hikers who awoke to the headline on Saturday flooded the "Free the Hikers" Facebook page with messages of sadness and encouragement.

"Iran has a history of giving harsh sentences," said Kibbey, citing the 2009 release of journalist Roxana Saberi, who was also sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage according to The New York Times.

Just weeks ago, the outlook was far more optimistic for the hikers; their lawyer suggested that, even if they were found guilty, their prison sentence should only be for the time they had already served, according to CNN. The hikers' families and friends .

Bauer and Fattal have been detained in Iran for more than two years, after illegally crossing the border into the country while hiking in Iraq in 2009, according to a website run by their family and friends that urges their release. Supporters say their border-crossing was an accident, but in Iran the hikers have been convicted of being spies.

Sarah Shourd, Bauer's fiancée, was also hiking with the pair and detained, but she was released on $500,000 bail in September 2010 after suffering from health problems, according to the Huffington Post.

Kibbey, who befriended Fattal while attending UC Santa Barbara in 2000, shared housing and transferred simultaneously with him to UC Berkeley, finds it ridiculous that anyone could think Fattal is a spy. "Josh was like a Berkeley co-op hippie," said Kibbey. "It would be hilarious if it wasn't this bad."

"He's such a calm, courteous, conscientious person, so it's sad that this is happening to him," said Kibbey, who now works in real estate in Berkeley.

Ken Light, a photojournalism instructor at UC Berkeley who counted Shane Bauer among his students in 2007, is similarly stumped by how Bauer, an emerging freelance journalist, could be considered a spy. "His world view and his interest in the world, and I believe his social view is absolutely opposite of anyone who would be a spy," said Light.

"We're hoping that there will be a turn of events and that he will be freed, but everyone is just very disappointed," said Light, who now considers Bauer a colleague. "It's been a very long wait."